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New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

ethz.ch

151–160 of 263 posts

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#151

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

What we really need is something that helps quickly break down acetaldehyde, which is what alcohol is broken down to in your bloodstream and is responsible for all the negative side effects.

[deleted]

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#152
post #90

Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Sam Adams, says that he mixes a teaspoon of bakers yeast (not sure which) and yogurt to break down the alcohol before it hits the bloodstream and has been doing it for years if not decades. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/10/327854051/al...

One guy says it works. The rest of the article is about a small experiment that showed otherwise. Then it quotes experts who explain why it doesn't work and called it an urban legend.

You are correct!

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#153
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, not seeing many good use cases. It could be prescribed to alcoholics who can’t/won’t stop drinking to help them taper off alcohol, but people would just end up drinking more to counter it. The best use I can think of is for undercover agents to drink heavily and avoid intoxication!

That's enough of a good use case! It would have made my college years much better...

Useful too for sales people at business dinners, execs doing corporate entertainment, journalists, even politicians - anyone who's employment requires them to engage in quasi-social activities with 3rd parties where it's awkward to refuse a drink or six.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#154
post #68
post #53

I wonder how that would affect the calories of the alcohol. Apparently the ethanol gets broken down into acetic acid, which I believe can't be digested further? Does that mean you also wouldn't gain weight when drinking dry beer or wine? EDIT: Apparently acetic acid _does_ have calories. Didn't know that.

> Apparently acetic acid _does_ have calories. Didn't know that. Calories are measured by burning the substance. While it very precisely determines contained energy in the physics sense, it's a question whether all that energy is used by digestion? Especially if it's something the body treats as a toxin and wants to remove as soon as possible?

A bit pedantic but burning is a chemical reaction, and redox reactions are redox reactions no matter where they're happening.

Also, substances like ethanol and acetic acid are not digested, they pretty much just go straight into the bloodstream. There is a limit on how much e.g. ethanol the liver can process per hour, which does put a cap on how many of ethanol's calories are released as ATP + body heat. Acetic acid is a normal temporary metabolite though and so its consumption is much more complete (it gets used by cells all over).

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#155
post #16

Something to sober you up if you're already drunk would be amazing, but I don't think this will do that

Sulforaphane. Take something like Broccomax - or eat lots of Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

I’d probably have to drink heavily before I could eat significant quantities of Brussels sprouts…

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#156

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

From alcohol, I love: - drinking it: I really enjoy the feeling of just ingesting beer, wine or spirits, especially with friends or family - having a nice buzz from it. However, those two things are, for me, incompatible. If I start drinking a little bit, I usually don't stop until I'm way beyond the "nice buzz". As the joke goes, "one beer is not enough, two beers are just enough, three beers really aren't enough".…

Try alternating between water and beer. You’ll drink half as much, and at a better pace.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#157
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sulforaphane. Take something like Broccomax - or eat lots of Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

I’d probably have to drink heavily before I could eat significant quantities of Brussels sprouts…

British people combine both at Xmas

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#158

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

Intoxicating. If you get the root of that word you might figure out the answer.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#159
post #110
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

disulfiram will do it ... in a more philosophical sense. also known as antabuse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disulfiram (if you take it, you will get sick if you drink alcohol) Personally, tequila works on me in a similar way when I smell it.

Naltrexone is a good alternative to this that doesn't make you physically sick. It just dulls the effect to the point where you kinda just get bored of drinking.

Also it’s half of the weight-loss drug Contrave, for similar reasons

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#160
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sulforaphane. Take something like Broccomax - or eat lots of Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

I’d probably have to drink heavily before I could eat significant quantities of Brussels sprouts…

Brussel sprouts are quite good these days, because they've been genetically engineered over the past 30 years to be less bitter. They're not your parents' sprouts anymore (especially roasted for that Maillard reaction, not boiled as they would've likely done).
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